Afro-Cuban Rhythms For Drumset

2

Table of contents
Introduction ..............................................................................................................................	3
History of Afro-Cuban rhythms .......................................................................................	3
Cuba ...........................................................................................................................................	4
Chapter 1 ..............................................................................................................................	6
Afro-Cuban 6/8 feel, Bembe ................................................................................................	6
6/8 Clave Pattern ............................................................................................................................	7
Polyrhythmic 6/8 pattern, Abakwa pattern ..................................................................................	11
Afro-Cuban 6/8 patterns with backbeats ..................................................................................	13
Afro-Cuban 6/8 feel in a Jazz setting ..................................................................................	17
Chapter 2 ..............................................................................................................................	20
Clave in 4/4 time ............................................................................................................................	20
Rumba Clave ............................................................................................................................	22
3-2, 2-3 Clave ............................................................................................................................	22
Son Clave ............................................................................................................................	23
One-bar Clave ............................................................................................................................	24
Chapter 3 ..............................................................................................................................	25
Palito Patterns and Cascara ................................................................................................	25
Cascara ...........................................................................................................................................	26
Tumbao ..........................................................................................................................................	30
Chapter 4 ..............................................................................................................................	34
Bell Patterns ............................................................................................................................	34
Mambo Bell Patterns ..............................................................................................................	34
Bongo Bell Patterns ..............................................................................................................	38
Bongo bell patterns with a conga player ..................................................................................	39
Mambo bell and Bongo bell patterns together ...................................................................	40
Cha-cha bell ............................................................................................................................	41
Chapter 5 ..............................................................................................................................	43
Rumba ..........................................................................................................................................	43
Guaguancó ..............................................................................................................	43
Guaguancó on congas ................................................................................................	46
Guaguancó on drumset ................................................................................................	46
Chapter 6 ..............................................................................................................................	52
Conga ...........................................................................................................................................	52
Conga folkloric feel ..............................................................................................................	52
Conga, Snare and bass drums patterns ..................................................................................	54
Conga, full drumset ..............................................................................................................	55
Bell parts for Conga ..............................................................................................................	56
Chapter 7 ..............................................................................................................................	57
Mozambique .............................................................................................................................	57
Mozambique on timbales ...............................................................................................................	57
Steve Gadd mozambique pattern .................................................................................................	58
Chapter 8 ..............................................................................................................................	60
Songo ...........................................................................................................................................	60
Chapter 9 ..............................................................................................................................	63
Merengue ............................................................................................................................	63
Frist Section: Merengue ..........................................................................................................	63
Second Section Jaleo ..........................................................................................................	63
Third Section Apanpicho ..........................................................................................................	64
Merengue, Full Drumset ..............................................................................................................	64
Merengue-Songo pattern ..............................................................................................................	65
Chapter 10 ..............................................................................................................................	66
Irving Blues ............................................................................................................................	66
Rumba Iyesa ............................................................................................................................	66
Chapter 11 ..............................................................................................................................	67

Medley of Playing examples .................................................................................................

67

3

Introduction

Welcome to Afro-Cuban rhythms for drumset. The next few pages will give a pretty extensive idea of how to apply afrocuban rhythms to a western drumset. You will find music scores and music samples throughout this website and you will need to download and install the free Real player(link provided in chapter 1)before continuing. This is my first website and it is a non-profit enterprise, it gave me the chance to learn a bit more about html and also to share what I know about these wonderful rhythms.

History of Afro-Cuban Rhythms

Through history as people have migrated around the world their culture, including their music, has mixed with that of others to create new musical forms. In the United States, South America, and the Caribbean, the influence of African rhythms is particularly strong. Rock, R&B, jazz (United States), bossa nova, samba (Brazil), salsa (Cuba, Puerto Rico, New York City), reaggae (Jamaica) and calypso (Trinidad) all have African rhythms origins. To account for this, we must look at the common history of the regions where these forms first began to develop.The islands of the West Indies were among the first areas of the New World to be colonized by the great European powers--Spain, Portugal, England and France. Originally inhabited by various Indian tribes, they were over in a manner that is by now well-known: Indian populations were enslaved or eliminated until the Europeans gained control of the areas they wanted and began exploiting agricultural and mineral wealth. To turn such "undeveloped" lands into moneymaking enterprises required huge amounts of cheap labor. In those days in the Americas, that need was filled by the African slave trade. Slavery brought hundreds of thousands of Africans to the Caribbean islands, South America, and the United States. Most came from West Africa, though many were also taken from central Africa, the region now known as Zaire. Portugal shipped slaves from its colonies Mozambique and Angola in southern Africa to its New World settlement, Brazil.

From the 17th to the 20th century in the colonized regions, Europeans, Africans, and what was left of the Indian populations came together in an immense blending of race, language, religion, social customs---and of course, music. Drumming is an integral part of everyday life in Africa, and the traditions from there were carried on in the Caribbean and Brazil. Music and dance are central in these societies to religious and social ritual, communication, and entertainment. Drums are believed to have spiritual power, power to heal, to "speak", to tap natural forces and affect human energy and emotion. The styles mentioned earlier all use African rhythms and European-derived melodies, and instruments from both cultures.

In Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic, the mixture of African rhythms and Spanish music led to new forms which have recently come to be called Afro-Caribbean music. Since the majority of the rhythms discussed in

4

this book are from the Cuban musical tradition, we will be using the term "AfroCuban." A closer look at the regions mentioned will help to explain the evolution of this music.

Cuba

The name Cuba comes from the Indian word cubanacan, meaning "center place." It is the largest island in the Caribbean. Cuba's first inhabitants were Indians of two tribes, the Tainos and Caribs. Both were all but annihilated by the Spanish, although traces of Taino culture remained.Under Spain, Cuba became the most profitable sugar-production region of the world. Sugar was an enormously valuable commodity in the 17th and 18th centuries; individual fortunes and national economies were founded on the sugar trade. Thousands of African slaves were brought in to work the vast cane plantations. These slaves were controlled by the spanish in various ways. Among other things, they were forced to speak Spanish and to accept Christianity. In defiance, slaves gave their African gods the names of Christian saints and continued to worship them in their native languages. This form of worship, known as Santeria, preserved many African religious, ritual and musical traditions, and is still practised today. Santeria is the Yoruba religion from Nigeria, as it has survived in Cuba. In its ceremonies we can hear West African rhythms in their nearlyoriginal state. The hourglass-shaped bata drum is used in Santeria to contact the orichas (deities believed to represent and control the forces of nature).

The merging of African and Spanish influences resulted in many new forms; one of the most important is the son. Son is the root of most familiar styles of Afro-Cuban dance music. It is believed to have originated in Oriente, the eastern province of Cuba, toward the end of the 19th century, and was a blend of the music of the campesinos, or farmers of Spanish descent, and the African slaves(slavery was not abolished in Cuba until 1878). It was played by small bands, using guitars or tres (a guitar-like instrument with 3 sets of strings) from the Spanish tradition; maracas, guiro, claves and bongos for rhythm; and for the bass parts, a marimbula or African "thumb piano" (a large version of the kalimba) which the player sat upon, and the botija, a clay jug with a hole into which the player blew to produce low notes. By the turn of the century, son was being played in Havana, taking on a more urban character and growing more and more popular, finally becoming a national style in the 1920s.

The best-known son band of the '20s was the Sexteto Habanero. This group replaced the marimbula and botija with the string bass and added the trumpet. The Septeto Nacional of Ignacio Piniero in the late '20s carried these innovations further: their tighter sound, faster tempos, and simpler rhythms emphasized the Spanish aspect of son more than the African, while the trumpet added a distinctly urban flavour.

Son was revolutionized in the late '30s by Arsenio Rodriguez, the great blind Cuban tres player. By enlarging the son conjunto (band) to include tumbadora (conga drum), cowbell, piano, and two additional trumpets, he brought much of the original African influence back into son while at the same time expanding on the form. Rodriguez modified son in a number of important ways. The estribillo section (a vamp using call-and-response) became a full-blown montuno or mambo section, with heavy rhythms to back up solos; this later gave rise to the dance we know as the mambo. There was greater use of and adherence to the clave rhythm throughout the music. Tumbao was developed , repeating

5

phrases played by the bass and conga. The guaguanco, Cuba's most popular rumba form, was worked into the son style, and the tres became more important as a solo instrument.

The Cuban son would provide the basis for the Latin jazz styles of the 1940s, the popular dance orchestras of Machito, Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez in the '50s, and the tipico and salsa bands that began in the '60s and continue to the present. In addition, such great musicians as Chano Pozo, Celia Cruz, Mongo Santamaria, and "Patato" Valdez helped bring Cuban styles to a place of international importance.

Other styles of music were popular in Cuba while son was developing. Most of this was dance music of European descent which was played by small versions of European orchestras. These groups, known as orquestras tipicas, performed the dance music fashionable with the Cuban upper calss of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Such dances as the habanera, ritmo de tango and contradanza were well-known in Cuba; the danzon, a 19th-century variation on the contradanza, was also a favourite, and in its later forms was very influential upon Cuban popular music.

Smaller versions of the orquestras tipicas, called charangas, also grew out of the contradanza tradition. Using violins, piano, flute, upright bass, guiro and timbales (a Latin adaptation of European kettle-drums), the charanga became a basic component of Cuban music. Charangas of the 1950s developed and popularized the cha-cha-cha, one of the many Latin "dance crazes" of the postwar era.

6

CHAPTER 1

Afro-Cuban 6/8 feel, Bembe:

Some of the fundamental rhythms in West Africa are based on 6/8 feels. In Cuba, one popular 6/8 feel is known as bembe, originating from the world bembes, which are religious gatherings that include drumming, singing and dancing. Let's listen to an example of the Afro-Cuban 6/8 feel played in a folkloric setting. This example is played on a hoe blade, shekeres (hollowed-out gourds with beads loosely wrapped around them), and conga drums(tumbadoras). This feel, played in Cuba, is completely African in style and instrumentation. Similar rhythms are heard throughout West Africa, especially in Nigeria (the Yoruba tribes) where much of the African population in Cuba originated. You'll hear the entire feel, and then each instrument solo, to show how the individual parts interlock.

Afro-cuban 6/8 feel (Bembe):

7

6/8 CLAVE PATTERN:

It's essential to understand the importance of clave in Afro-Cuban music. Clave is a Spanish word meaning "key". The clave is the key to the rhythm being played, serving as skeletal rhythmic figure around which the different drums and percussion instruments are played. Any rhythmic figure can serve as a clave. We will be using what have become the most popular and important claves in African and Afro-Cuban music.

The clave rhythm is typically played on an instrument called claves, two round, solid pieces of wood which are struck one against the other. Clave figures can also be played by clapping your hands, hitting your drumsticks together, playing a cross stick on the snare drum or striking the side of the floor tom. Claves are used in Afro-Cuban folkloric and dance music, but are not usually played in Afro-Cuban 6/8 feels. We are playing the 6/8 clave only to show how it relates to the 6/8 cowbell pattern.

6/8 clave counted in 6/8 time:

8

6/8 clave in 4/4 time, with triplets:

Now play quarter-notes on the hi-hat with your foot along with the 6/8 clave figure, while counting eight-note triplets. 6/8 clave counted in 4/4 time with hi-hat on quarter-notes:

The 6/8 cowbell pattern corresponding to the 6/8 clave sounds like this:

Playing quarter notes on the hi-hat helps lock in the bell pattern. Notice that this pattern is actually the clave figure with pickup notes before the third note and the first note of the clave pattern. Again, the clave is not traditionally played in 6/8, we're only showing how the 6/8 clave relates to the 6/8 cowbell pattern. Here:

9

With the hi-hat playing the quarter notes, try playing the cowbell figure with your right hand, while your left hand plays the clave pattern:

Adding the bass drum:

Now play the bass drum on beat 1, with an optional pickup on the last triplet note of "4":

We can also play the bass drum with a kind of "2 feel". Play the bass drum on beats 1 and 3, with optional notes on the second triplet of "3" and the last triplet note of "4". The two optional notes give more of a swing, and feeling of forward motion to the rhythm. Here:

The toms on the drum set can imitate some of the basic conga parts that can be played to this Afro-Cuban 6/8 feel. Here:

10

Let's put it all together. Afro-Cuban 6/8 feel with full drumset:

IDEAS:

The cowbell pattern can be played on the side of the floor tom for a wood sound, or played on the hi-hat imitating the shekere. If you play the cowbell pattern on the hi-hat, don't play quarter-notes on the hihat with your foot. Also try the cowbell pattern on the ride cymbal for a jazz or fusion feel.Try leaving out the first note on the small tom. Now, the first note that you play on the tom falls on the clave pattern, making the rhythm more syncopated. At faster tempos this works well, it's less cluttered and swings harder.

Leaving out the first note of the small tom, listen:

You can use bass drum figure 2 with optional pick up notes, to create a "2 feel", dividing the measure in half. Using bass drum figure 2, listen: